Sunday, May 4, 2008

Sermon: Ascension (4 May 2008)


Feast of the Ascension: 4 May 2008
(Acts 1:1-11/Psalm 47/Ephesians 1:15-23/Luke 24:44-53)
The Politics of the Ascension

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Barak Obama gets this week’s “With Friends Like That Who Needs Enemies” award, as far as I’m concerned. Throughout his campaign he has constantly walked a racial tightrope. To win the nomination he must appeal to people of color, to the Hispanic and African-American communities. But, he can’t be seen as the minority candidate only; that’s a racially divisive tactic that would destroy his candidacy. He must appeal to the white voters also. That’s a problem; Hillary Clinton has a lock on the core of the white, Democratic voters – the middle-class, blue-collar population. So, Obama is forced to put together a strange coalition: people of color – often disaffected Latinos and African-Americans – with upper-middle class, educated, urban white folk. He’s walked that racial tightrope with amazing balance so far. Then up pops his minister this week, the Revered Jeremiah Wright, and cuts his legs right out from under him. You don’t expect your pastor to do you in like that. With friends like that, who needs enemies?

Wright said some pretty outrageous things to the National Press Club, things about the black church and the black religious culture and tradition in the United States. Here are some excerpts of his speech.

The prophetic tradition of the black church has its roots in Isaiah, the 61st chapter, where God says the prophet is to preach the gospel to the poor and to set at liberty those who are held captive. Liberating the captives also liberates those who are holding them captive. It frees the captives and it frees the captors. It frees the oppressed and it frees the oppressors.

The prophetic theology of the black church, during the days of chattel slavery, was a theology of liberation. It was preached to set free those who were held in bondage spiritually, psychologically, and sometimes physically. And it was practiced to set the slaveholders free from the notion that they could define other human beings or confine a soul set free by the power of the gospel.

The prophetic theology of the black church is not only a theology of liberation; it is also a theology of transformation, which is also rooted in Isaiah 61, the text from which Jesus preached his inaugural message, as recorded by Luke. When you read the entire passage from either Isaiah 61 or Luke 4 and do not try to understand the passage or the content of the passage in the context of a sound bite, what you see is God’s desire for a radical change in a social order that has gone sour.

God’s desire is for positive, meaningful and permanent change. God does not want one people seeing themselves as superior to other people. God does not want the powerless masses, the poor, the widows, the marginalized, and those underserved by the powerful few to stay locked into sick systems which treat some in the society as being more equal than others in that same society.


God’s desire is for positive change, transformation, real change, not cosmetic change, transformation, radical change or a change that makes a permanent difference, transformation. God’s desire is for transformation, changed lives, changed minds, changed laws, changed social orders, and changed hearts in a changed world.

The prophetic theology of the black church is a theology of liberation; it is a theology of transformation; and it is ultimately a theology of reconciliation.


The Apostle Paul said, “Be ye reconciled one to another, even as God was in Christ reconciling the world to God’s self.”


God does not desire for us, as children of God, to be at war with each other, to see each other as superior or inferior, to hate each other, abuse each other, misuse each other, define each other, or put each other down.


God wants us reconciled, one to another.
[1]

What got into Wright? How dare a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ talk about liberation, transformation, and reconciliation – especially in a secular, public forum like the National Press Club? Doesn’t he know that a pastor is supposed to stand behind his pulpit in his own church, preach hell-fire and damnation, and invite people to repent and pray the sinner’s prayer? It’s about salvation. It’s about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. What does that have to do with liberation, transformation, and reconciliation? Those things sound – well, they sound political. What business does a minister have talking politics? What business does a minister have suggesting that the Gospel just might have something to say to our elected leaders about how God wants things done? What business does a minister have asserting that those in authority are answerable to God for their use or abuse of that authority? That kind of talk can get you in trouble. That kind of talk can get you fired. That kind of talk can get you crucified.

Well, this is a setup just to provoke you – just like the Gospel does from time to time. I don’t really mean to defend Jeremiah Wright. He did say some incendiary and divisive things – not to mention just plain stupid – over the past week and Obama was probably right in condemning his former minister’s words. But not everything he said was wrong. Some of it was pure Gospel. And our secular world – our political candidates, our elected officials, and our government – don’t quite know what to do with the Gospel when religious folk take their faith out of the churches and into the public arena. There are some assumptions about the role of faith and the church in politics that should be challenged. Who says that the role of the church is to preserve the status quo, wave the flag, endorse the politicians and their programs, support their wars, and pray for the troops they sent into those wars? Not Scripture.

So, I say again that I’m not here to defend the Reverend Wright; he’s a much bigger player on a much bigger stage than I am and certainly doesn’t need me to speak on his behalf. But I am here to defend the right of the church to speak the truth to the powers-that-be, or rather to the powers-that-think-they-be.

That’s what the early church – the church during the first few generations following the resurrection – did in their faith and practice. They announced in word and deed, in their meetings and in their communities, before one another and before the world that the powers-that-be were no longer the powers-that-are. They engaged in politics of the most fundamental form – politics as the creation of a people, which is really what politics is all about. They met daily in faith communities that included slaves and masters, male and female, powerful and disenfranchised. They shared all things in common and some of them were, at least on one occasion, struck down by God for withholding property from the common store and lying about it. They lived by and died for the faith and won an empire and a world for Jesus Christ. Now that’s politics – religion played out in the public forum.

The ancient faith at its best was bold and confident – no hedging of the bets, no waffling, no worries about political correctness – just a bold proclamation of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Our modern faith seems to me often tentative – a best guess, one option among many, a truth that works for me but not necessarily the truth before which all people must ultimately bow. Can you imagine a modern Christian scholar invited to speak before an interfaith congress – Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, representatives of major and minor faiths the world over – opening his address like this?

I know that you are extremely religious; your faiths testify to that. But you hold these faiths in ignorance. What you worship in ignorance I now proclaim to you in truth: how God the creator of the universe became incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, how through Jesus he has called all men to repentance, how through Jesus he will judge all mankind, how he has testified to this truth through raising Jesus from the dead (cf Acts 17:22-31).

That is the sound of the ancient faith proclaimed by Paul to the philosophers of the Areopagus in Athens, the National Press Club of its day. I’ll bet he sounded to them like, I don’t know, Jeremiah Wright maybe? I like the sound of that ancient faith – its boldness, its confidence. I want my modern faith to sound like that.

This brings me round to the event we celebrate this day, the Ascension of our Lord. We don’t make much of the Ascension in the modern church; it can’t begin to rival Christmas or Good Friday or Easter or even Pentecost in importance and attention. I’m not sure many of us know what to make of it. It belongs more to the ancient faith, I think – to a time of boldness and confidence. When you truly celebrate the Ascension, there can be no hedging of bets, no waffling, no worries about political correctness – just a bold proclamation of the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The early Christians were quite convinced that the Kingdom of God had already come among them in and through the incarnation, life, death, and supremely in the resurrection of Jesus: not would come someday, mind you, but had already come now. It wasn’t here in its fullness, but it was here; it had been inaugurated. It was a project that Jesus had launched onto the stage of history, a project which was progressing under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. These early Christians, the caretakers of the ancient faith, were likewise insistent that in and through his ascension Jesus had taken his rightful place of glory and authority at the right hand of God. Seated on the throne he had begun to reign: not will begin to reign someday, but had begun to reign now. The shorthand for all this, the way of capturing these great truths in the fewest words, is the earliest creedal statement of the ancient church: Jesus is Lord. To say Jesus is Lord or simply to call him Lord Jesus was to announce the present Kingdom of God and the present reign of Jesus as ruler of all.

Paul hedged no bets; he was not at all tentative when he proclaimed to the Ephesians the power of God that God put

to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all (Eph 1:20-23).[2]

Paul hedged no bets; he was not at all tentative when he proclaimed to the Philippians that, because Jesus humbled himself and became obedient unto death on the cross

God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Php 2:9-11).

Peter hedged no bets; he was not at all tentative when he proclaimed to the massive gathering of Jews that first Pentecost following the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus that

this Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. Therefore let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified (Acts 2:32-33, 36).

Polycarp, disciple of John the Apostle, hedged no bets; he was not at all tentative when he stood trial in the arena before a Roman proconsul, when he knew his martyrdom was at hand.

The proconsul became more insistent and said, “Take the oath and I will release you. Revile Christ.” But Polycarp responded, “For eighty-six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my king who has saved me?”[3]

These fathers of the faith hedged no bets, were not at all tentative in proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ because they knew that in the Ascension, Jesus had taken his rightful place of authority and rule at the right hand of God, his Father and our Father; because they knew that all pretenders to the throne – all would-be rulers on earth and in the spiritual realms – had been cast down and trampled underfoot by the true King; because they knew that the redemptive work of Jesus – death, burial, resurrection, and, yes, ascension – had inaugurated the Kingdom of God on earth as in heaven and that they were even then citizens of that kingdom, as Paul himself proclaimed.

[God] has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins (Col 1:13).

Here’s what’s most impressive to me: Peter, Paul, Polycarp, and all the rest of the mothers and fathers of the ancient faith proclaimed the present reality of the Kingdom of God and the present rule of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of and directly to a Roman Empire that dominated the known world, directly in the face of an Emperor who considered himself the son of God and who claimed all earthly authority for himself. What gave them this boldness, this confidence? They knew, through the power of the Holy Spirit, that at the Ascension Christ had taken his rightful place of authority and rule at the right hand of God “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come” (Eph 1:21).

What is the evidence that they were right, that the Kingdom of God had come and that Jesus had begun his reign at his Ascension? Peter, Paul, Polycarp, and all the rest of the mothers and fathers of the ancient faith – they were and are the evidence. Men and women, Jews and Gentiles, slave and free, rich and poor, powerful and disenfranchised living in the Kingdom of God right there and right then, in holiness and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, proclaiming him as Lord and bending the knee only to him. The ancient church being the church was the evidence that the Kingdom of God had come – there and then – and that Jesus had begun his reign.

Let us stand today and proclaim that the Kingdom of God has come and that Jesus is even now reigning over all things in heaven and on earth and we will be met with skepticism at best and hostility at worst – from outside the church, certainly, and maybe also from within it. Can we seriously maintain the present reality of the Kingdom of God and the reign of Christ in light of war and genocide and poverty and terrorism and natural disasters and human suffering? Yes. Yes, so long as the church is the church. So long as there is a community of the faithful living in the Kingdom of God amidst the surrounding chaos, living in holiness and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ, proclaiming him as Lord and bending the knee only to him. So long as there is a community of the faithful bringing light into the darkness, healing into a wounded world, broken bread to the hungry, living water to the thirsty, and eternal life to the dying – and all in the name of the ascended Lord Jesus Christ who even now sits enthroned at the right hand of God. We can boldly and confidently proclaim the present reality of the Kingdom of God and the reign of Christ wherever and whenever, by the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, we become the answer to the prayer of St. Francis:

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.


And if the Kingdom of God doesn’t look exactly like the world expects it to, is that any wonder? Since when did Jesus do things the world’s way? Of course, the Kingdom of God doesn’t look like a dictatorship in which all opposition is brutally crushed and swept away. Of course, the reign of Christ doesn’t look like a tyrannical exercise of unlimited power. This may be what the world would expect, but we know better, don’t we? The Kingdom of God is like – well, it’s like a treasure hidden in field, a lump of leaven hidden in several loaves of bread, a tiny mustard seed planted in the ground. And the reign of Christ? Well, Jesus came among us as one who serves and told us to do likewise. Jesus took up not a scepter but a cross and told us to do likewise. Jesus laid down his life for the world and told us to do likewise. That’s what the reign of Christ looks like in the midst of this fallen world.

The angels said to those who witnessed the Ascension,

“Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

When he does we know that every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father (Php 2:10-11). I suspect that no one – not even those who hate and oppose him – will be coerced or forced to do this. Rather, I think that witnessing his beauty and glory, they will spontaneously fall to their knees in worship, in acknowledgement of what the church knows already through the Ascension: the Kingdom of God has come and the Lord Jesus Christ has begun his reign. This is the politics of the ancient church and this is its bold proclamation: Jesus is Lord. May it be ours also.

Amen.

[1] Transcript of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s speech before the National Press Club on Monday, April 28, 2008. http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/28/transcript-rev-wright-at-the-national-press-club/
[2] Unless otherwise noted all scripture references are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.
[3] The Martyrdom of Polycarp (9). The Apostolic Fathers Volume 1. Loeb Classical Library. Bart D. Ehrman, translator.

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